The 2-door Model Is Down, But Not Quite Out

February 22, 1996|By Automotive News

The two-door car is not dead. But nowadays it probably has a woman behind the wheel.

The full-sized two-door was a symbol of male power and prestige. Men still want image cars, but their masculine statements of choice are now sport-utilities such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ford Explorer.

Two-door car registrations in the United States plummeted in the last decade, from 4.3 million in 1985 to an estimated 1.8 million last year, according to R.L. Polk & Co. of Detroit.

Coupes also have declined, because four-doors now have the sporty feel of coupes and many manufacturers stopped making two-door hatchbacks in favor of four-door cars.

The exodus to light trucks has left two-door cars in the hands of women. Thrifty women, to be specific. The strongest two-door sellers are such inexpensive models as the Ford Escort, Neon and Saturn.

''Twenty thousand dollars seems to be the barrier,'' said Joe Caddell, general product manager for Chrysler Corp.'s small car platform. About 30 percent of Neons are two-door models, and about 60 percent of all Neon buyers are women.

Falling sales of sports cars also contributed to the decline of two-doors. The sporty segment, whose top sellers last year were the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro and Mitsubishi Eclipse, dropped 15.5 percent in calendar 1995, according to the Automotive News Data Center.

The decline was accelerated by the collapse of the two-door hatchback, which accounted for a loss of 1.6 million registrations over the decade, Polk said.

While some smaller cars such as the Saturn SL1 and SL2 and the Neon Coupe are making headway, large and expensive two-door cars are suffering. Sales of the Ford Thunderbird, for example, dropped 20 percent from calendar 1994 to calendar 1995. Lincoln Mark VIII sales fell 35 percent over the same period.

4-door convenience

Caddell said the aging of baby boomers is contributing to the drift away from two doors. Kids and gear are more easily managed with an extra pair of doors.

The trend also can be seen in General Motors' replacements this fall for three midsized cars. Of the Pontiac Grand Prix, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme (renamed the Intrigue) and Buick Century, only the Grand Prix will be offered with two doors.

Bill Heugh, brand manager for the Grand Prix, said buyers were lured from coupes because automakers gave four-door cars the look and feel of coupes.

Many four-door cars have such classic coupe attributes as a highly raked windshield, low roof line, large tires, spoilers and ground effects. The 1997 Grand Prix four-door and coupe are virtually identical except for the doors, he said.

Thus, buyers can enjoy coupe sportiness and the utility of four doors in the same car.

Because coupes and four-doors share so many characteristics nowadays, Pontiac stylists recently have been kicking around new ways to imbue two-door cars with a fresh sense of identity, Heugh said, although he declined to be more specific.

He agreed with Chrysler's Caddell that women are driving the coupe market. Fifty-five percent of Grand Prix coupes are purchased by women, he said, while 50 percent of Grand Prix four-doors are purchased by women.